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Friday, April 22, 2011

Sophomore 3B Katie Davis (Woburn, Mass.) drove in five runs and cranked out her team-leading fourth homerun of the season to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies to a 6-3 win over the Keene State College Owls in the first game of a Little East Conference doubleheader Friday afternoon at Towers Field in Gorham, Maine. The Owls bounced back for a 13-2, six-inning win over the Huskies in the second game to earn the split.

Splitting the season series, Keene State stands at 25-8-1 and 7-3 in the Little East Conference. The Huskies are now 4-30 overall and 2-8 in the conference. Southern Maine’s 6-3 win over the Owls in the first games halted a five-game slide.

Trailing the Owls 2-1 after two and a half innings in the books, the Huskies plated four runs in the bottom of the third and added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth for the win. Davis keyed the rally stroking a three-run homerun over the centerfield fence. Senior P Sarah Deroche (Portland, Maine/Deering) came around to score the Huskies’ fourth run of the inning after she laced a triple down the right field line and crossed home on a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the fourth, Southern Maine moved ahead of the Owls 6-2 as Davis singled up the middle of the infield to plate freshman OF Stefanie Stockwell (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle). Stockwell finished the game 3-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored from the leadoff spot in the lineup.

The Owls cut the USM lead in half in the top of the seventh inning on a two-out RBI single from junior 1B Sara Stocklinski (Newton, N.J./Kittatinny Regional), but Deroche got the final out to hold on for the win.

Deroche allowed one earned run in seven innings on seven hits and four walks. She struck out five. Junior P Emily Albin (Bethel, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) took the loss for the Owls, allowing five earned runs on five hits and three walks through three innings pitched. She was relieved by junior Courntey Savoie (Stratham, N.H./Exeter). Savoie fired the final three innings for the Owls, giving up one run on five hits.

In the second game, the Owls pounded out 12 hits and received an outstanding pitching effort from Stocklinski to take a 13-2 win in the nightcap. Stocklinski held the Huskies to five hits and two walks over six innings while grabbing six strikeouts.Of Keene State’s 12 hits, three of were homeruns including two from sophomore DH Kayla Joyce (Bridgewater, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) and a solo shot from freshman OF Julia Gray (Windham, N.H./Salem) Joyce’s two homeruns accounted for four RBI and moves her into a tie for second in the conference with seven this season, while Gray’s is her first collegiate homerun. Joyce and Gray went back-to-back with solo shots to right centerfield in the fifth.